Caring for aging parents and ensuring they can stay in their own homes is a heartfelt commitment many of us will face. The question often arises, “How to help elderly parents stay at home?” While it’s a beautiful gesture that keeps them in familiar surroundings, it requires planning and consideration.
To help you navigate this journey, here are our tips to ensure your elderly parents can remain safely and comfortably in their home.
How To Help Elderly Parents Stay At Home:
1. Assess the Level of Care Needed
When you are overwhelmed with a long list of caregiving to-dos, you are more focused on individual tasks rather than the larger picture. To help combat this stress, take a step back and determine how much care your parent(s) really needs. First, make a comprehensive list of the daily, weekly, and monthly care tasks needed.
An easy way to do this is by leaving a notepad out and making a quick note every time you or someone else helps your senior with something. This will help you to track the assistance your parent requires. After a week or so, you will have a much better idea of what your aging parent needs to help with, and at what times of the day. Moving forward, you will understand the types of care your aging parent truly needs
Consider a professional assessment from a home care agency like Sunny Days In-Home Care to ensure all your parent’s needs are identified and met. At Sunny Days, our local field managers will visit your home to talk with you about how a Sunny Days caregiver can deliver the most effective care for you and your individual needs.
2. Be Honest and Understand Your Capabilities
Taking care of your aging parents can lead to burnout or your own serious health condition–leaving you unable to take care of anyone else. When you are evaluating your parents’ needs, be realistic about how much you really can provide for them without compromising your own health. It is essential to set boundaries to prevent caregiver burnout, which could impact your ability to provide care in the long term. If necessary, reach out to professional services that can take on some of the caregiving tasks.
3. Enlist Professional Help
The best way to be proactive about taking care of your aging parents in their homes is to get professional help. Even though it may seem like finding caregiving takes too much time and effort, this is an investment that will pay off in the future! Luckily, Sunny Days makes this process easy. We are devoted to providing high-quality and affordable in-home care services to all of our clients. With our individualized matching process, we assess our client’s needs and preferences instead of simply filling the vacancy with whoever is available. Our goal is to always understand our seniors’ needs to the best of our ability.
4. Share the Responsibility
Similar to gaining help with caregiving, you will want to share some of the responsibility when it comes to taking care of aging parents. Ask siblings or close relatives if they would take on their share of the responsibility.
This will give you an opportunity for some much-needed rest. Getting help from family members is different for everyone. For one person, it could be moving mom to the brother’s house for a year. For another person, it could be taking turns living with dad for a month or two at a time. If you have family willing to help, be creative and flexible. It may not be the ideal situation, but any help will lessen your responsibility for you.
5. Leveraging Technology and Community Resources
Another great way to relieve the stress of how to help elderly parents stay at home is the leverage technology like medical alert systems and home monitoring. These tools can enhance your parents’ safety and help you feel more at peace too. Also, explore community resources for seniors, which can offer additional support, social engagement, and activities.
6. Keeping Elderly Parents At Home Can Reduce Financial Pressure
Finally, our last tip on how to help elderly parents stay at home is to reduce financial pressure as much as possible. Managing the cost of care is crucial, as caring for an older adult can place a significant financial burden on your family.
Be sure to research different payment options and choose what best suits your family’s financial situation. Understand that in-home care can be a cost-effective alternative to assisted living or nursing home care, and it allows your loved ones to stay in the comfort of their homes! At Sunny Days, we have several options available to you when it comes to in-home care payments. Any of our staff members would be more than willing to help you understand these payment options!
End Note
Caring for an aging parent can be a daunting task, but you are not in it alone! Remember, “how to help elderly parents stay at home” is a question with many facets. Be sure to keep these tips in mind, and you will be on the right track to providing the best care possible for your loved one. This will save you, and your aging parent safe, happy, and healthy! With over 10 years of service and 500+ caregivers, Sunny Days is here for you to get started with individualized, in-home care. Contact us today!
